Credit union won't sell site to MDHA for apartments

Nov. 9, 2013

Joe Cain, director of urban development for the Metro Development and Housing Agency

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The Tennessean

Sharon Hurt, CEO of the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership

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A 35-unit apartment building won’t be built near the corner of Jefferson Street and 16th Avenue North after the credit union that owns the property sought this week to cancel its contract to sell that site to the city’s development agency.

“We’ve verbally agreed to that, (but) haven’t officially terminated it as of yet,” said Joe Cain, director of urban development for the Metro Development and Housing Agency.

MDHA had revealed plans for the nearly $4 million market-rate apartment project over the summer, citing hopes of boosting housing options fronting Jefferson and extending growth in nearby neighborhoods, including Germantown, Salemtown and Hope Gardens, west along the once-vibrant heart of the city’s African-American community.

Its contract to buy the half-acre site for about $200,000 from the Metropolitan Teachers Credit Union had approval from both boards and was expected to close by year-end.

Alfred Coleman, the credit union president, attributed the change in course to concerns raised by credit union members who considered the idea of selling the property unfair and unprofitable.

The apartment building would have been the first multi-unit residential structure built along Jefferson Street between Rosa L. Parks Boulevard and D.B. Todd Boulevard since the mixed-used Jefferson 942 opened in 1999. That project features a dozen apartments above office space occupied by tenants including Nationwide Insurance and The White Law Group.

“I’m disappointed that that foundational development is not going to take place, but I understand the circumstances surrounding it,” said Sharon Hurt, CEO of the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership, a community development organization.

She heard the 900-member credit union founded to serve African-American employees of Metro Schools thought it might have been able to buy another site for a new home but concluded that would be more expensive. The 56-year-old institution has owned the property at 1605 Jefferson St., which includes its 15,000-square-feet offices, for 20 years.

With the contract falling through, Cain said MDHA plans to look at properties in other areas in North Nashville for a building site. The apartments are part of efforts to replace some of the housing inventory lost in North Nashville because of the May 2010 flood.

Debbie Frank, CEO of consulting firm Urban Blueprint, who led a nonprofit entity that co-developed Jefferson 942, sees more residential development along Jefferson to meet demand for more urban dwellings and also more mixed-use projects.

“It’s a corridor that definitely has some rich history, and the bones there are good,” she added.

Hurt said some owners of properties along Jefferson are seeing more interest from developers, driven in part by neighborhood developments. That includes talk about a new ballpark at Sulphur Dell and a new state museum and library, the boom in growth of Germantown and the new 28th/31st Avenue connector off Charlotte Pike.

“It’s a very untapped area when it comes to development, but it’s close to downtown, it’s centrally located and people are seeing that things are progressing here,” Hurt said.